Britain's government says it will invest $35 million in research into graphene, considered a miracle material for its strength and electronic properties.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said the money would go to the most promising graphene-related research projects in British universities, the BBC reported Thursday.

One of the lightest, strongest and most conductive materials known, graphene is sheets of carbon just one atom thick with significant potential for use in electronics and other fields.

The government's investment funding was intended to move graphene technology "from the British laboratory to the British factory floor," Osborne said.

The discovery of graphene in 2005 brought Nobel prizes in 2010 for Manchester University researchers Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov.

The new funding is intended to help with the engineering challenges inherent in working with graphene sheets just an atom thick that are difficult to isolate, manipulate and reliably connect to other materials.

The University of Cambridge will receive almost $20 million for work on graphene-flexible electronics and opto-electronics, which could advance touch-screens and other display devices, while Imperial College London will receive more than $7 million to research aerospace applications for the material.

Synthetic and biological nanoparticles combined to produce new metamaterialsAalto, Finland (SPX) Dec 21, 2012Scientists from Aalto University, Finland, have succeeded in organising virus particles, protein cages and nanoparticles into crystalline materials. These nanomaterials studied by the Finnish research group are important for applications in sensing, optics, electronics and drug delivery.
Layer structures, or superlattices, of crystalline nanoparticles have been extensively studied in recen ... read more

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency.
All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement